Sony goes after Kindle with new, touchscreen eBook reader

Sony gears up to take on the Kindle with a new Reader model that's got a touch …

In a press event in New York City, Sony introduced a new model in its Reader line that it hopes will catch the attention of a public and electronics press that might be forgiven for thinking that Amazon's Kindle is the only game in the eBook town. The new device has a touch-sensitive screen and a gesture-driven interface that may help blur the line between a reader and devices such as cell phones. It also comes backed with a marketing campaign that takes a page straight out of Apple's playbook, but nothing approaching Amazon's wireless storefront.

Steve Haber, who ran Sony's presentation, opened it by making a candid admission: the Reader had bombed in Sony's home market in Japan (okay, he didn't use the word "bombed," but the implication was obvious). Instead, Sony was apparently surprised at how well it did in the US market, and has decided to refocus its efforts here. That means that the hardware, software, and store groups that, combined, provide the full Reader experience, are all being relocated to the States, specifically San Diego. Sony is also hoping to build on the experience here to develop a market in Europe; the Reader launched in England recently, and is on the verge of hitting the French market

Although the US has been a relative success, Sony's been continuing to do its homework with consumers. One of the things they found was that many people considered themselves uninterested in reading eBooks, but changed their minds when actually exposed to the Reader. To overcome this, Sony's trained 1,000 people that will be set loose in some of the 3,000 retail outlets that carry the Reader in an effort to expose more of the public to it. The company is also launching a program that will see it donate Readers and eBooks to schools.

All of that effort will be helped by the point of the event: new hardware, specifically the PRS-700, which will join the existing PRS-505, rather than replacing it. It will cost $399, which is $100 more than the earlier model, but the hardware appears to be a substantial upgrade.

The key feature is its touch-sensitive screen, which allows users to manipulate the device with either the included stylus or a finger. Reader users can now directly select text, type on an onscreen keyboard, and page through content with gestures, swiping pages to turn them or shuffling rapidly through a book with a swipe-and-hold gesture. The E Ink screen seemed more responsive than the Kindle's, which makes the responses to gestures seem fairly direct. The onscreen typing, however, still feels a bit sluggish.

The 700's case has the same sleek format as the earlier model, but Sony has taken excellent advantage of the touchscreen. With more of the action being handled on the screen, the number of hardware controls has been drastically reduced, with the screen taking up more of the device. That means more text content on screen at once, and less of the hardware making its presence known when people are reading that content. The device also has built-in lights along the side of the display, which should allow reading in low-light situations—at the expense of battery life.

What was striking were the nascent hints that eBook readers have started on the road of convergence with other portable electronic devices. Thanks to the touch screen, words can be selected with a double-tap, and the interface sometimes pops up dialogs that are clearly windows, with a plainly marked close box. The Reader's music player function now has on-screen controls, and its picture viewing application pans and zooms with gestures that would work identically on the iPhone (no pinch to zoom out, however).

It glows!
The Reader can be used in the dark.

In my brief hands-on time with it, the Reader's hardware seemed superior to the Kindle in nearly every way, but it still lacks some of the Kindle's killer features: brand recognition, a huge content library, and always-on wireless. Haber made it clear that all of these are in the works. Sony plans to have 100,000 titles available by the holidays (although that's still just about half the Kindle's content) and its trained sales teams should be in the stores by then. Wireless will come, too, but Haber said, "it needs to be on an open foundation" before Sony will release it.

I have no idea what "an open foundation" means in practical terms (different carriers? access to different stores?). Still, the Reader's hardware is a big step up and, if it can be married with the best features of its primary competitor, Sony should have a compelling device on its hands.